Biggest sports injuries this week: Jaylin Noel, Kevin De Bruyne, Bukayo Saka and more across the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and soccer

Here’s the new board: five sports, 21 athletes, mostly new since our October 30 scoreboard, and what each injury teaches the rest of us. For soccer, we checked the big clubs across the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Turkey’s Süper Lig.

We have no connection with these athletes or teams and haven’t examined them. Everything here comes from public reports as of Monday, November 2, 2026, and status can change quickly.

The biggest sports injuries this week: the scoreboard

Athlete	Team	League	Injury as reported	Reported status
Justin Champagnie	Wizards	NBA	Fractured right foot	Had surgery (announced Oct. 28); team hopes for a return by the All-Star break, per The Athletic[2]
Jusuf Nurkić	Jazz	NBA	Partial plantar plate tear, second toe, right foot	Re-evaluation set four weeks after the Oct. 8 announcement[14]
Jalen Johnson	Hawks	NBA	Left ankle sprain	Hurt Oct. 31, did not return; questionable for Nov. 2 against Indiana[15]
Jaylin Noel	Texans	NFL	Turf toe	Placed on injured reserve Oct. 28; expected to miss the rest of the season[1]
Jake Ferguson	Cowboys	NFL	Low-ankle sprain	Hurt Nov. 1; ruled out after halftime[3]
Hunter Henry	Patriots	NFL	Foot	Hurt Nov. 1; did not return; no update on severity[4]
Tyler Huntley	Ravens	NFL	Toe	Hurt Nov. 1; did not return[16]
Josh Manson	Avalanche	NHL	Ankle	About eight weeks, his coach said Oct. 30[17]
Rasmus Sandin	Capitals	NHL	Torn right ACL (April 2026)	Surgery April 21, 2026; joined team skills work; no timeline[8]
Caleb Durbin	Red Sox	MLB	Right foot, base of the fifth metatarsal	Surgery Oct. 29; foot expected to be a non-issue by spring training[9,18]
Joey Loperfido	Astros	MLB	Right hip impingement and labral injury	Arthroscopic surgery (announced Oct. 26); won’t be ready for the start of spring training[10]
Max Muncy	Athletics	MLB	Left knee cartilage damage	Knee debridement surgery (reported Oct. 26); expected to take full part in spring training[11]
Bukayo Saka	Arsenal	EPL	Thigh	Missed the Nov. 1 match at Liverpool; needed another scan to check the tendon; no return date[19,20]
Antoine Semenyo	Manchester City	EPL	Knee	Hurt Oct. 17; could be out about eight weeks, his manager said (reported Oct. 19)[21]
Jules Koundé	Barcelona	La Liga	Left ankle sprain (announced Oct. 18)	Missed three matches; still a doubt for the Nov. 3 Champions League match[22,23]
Kevin De Bruyne	Napoli	Serie A	Ankle sprain	Came off at halftime Nov. 1; tests set for Nov. 2; no return date[6,24]
Ismael Saibari	Bayern Munich	Bundesliga	Torn syndesmosis ligament, right ankle	Hurt Oct. 31; surgery reported Nov. 1; about three months, per SPORT1[5]
Serge Gnabry	Bayern Munich	Bundesliga	Muscle injury, back of the left thigh	Hurt Oct. 31; out for now; no timeline given[5]
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia	Paris Saint-Germain	Ligue 1	Torn ACL, right knee (Oct. 20)	Surgery announced Oct. 27; out for months[25,7]
Ousmane Dembélé	Paris Saint-Germain	Ligue 1	Left thigh muscle injury (Oct. 20)	Expected to miss several weeks (reported Oct. 21); still out of the squad Oct. 30[25,26]
Orkun Kökçü	Beşiktaş	Süper Lig	Partial plantar fascia tear and heel fat pad injury, right foot	Announced Oct. 16; ruled out of the Nov. 1 match; no return date[27,28]

NBA injuries: a broken foot and a torn toe ligament

Justin Champagnie broke his right foot in the first quarter Oct. 26, and the Wizards announced Oct. 28 that surgery repaired it.^[2] Jusuf Nurkić has a partial plantar plate tear in the second toe of his right foot. The plantar plate is a tough pad of tissue under the joint at the base of the toe.^[14] Jalen Johnson sprained his left ankle in Saturday’s loss to New Orleans and is questionable for Monday.^[15]

The lesson: A broken foot can be fixed, not just waited out. Champagnie’s team is already looking ahead to a return date after his repair.^[2] For plantar plate tears in general, not a forecast for Nurkić, a review of 537 tears treated with direct surgical repair found reliable gains in pain and function out to two years.^[29] Pain under the second toe isn’t just a sore foot. Get the ball of your foot looked at.

NFL injuries: turf toe, a low ankle sprain, a foot and a toe

Jaylin Noel hurt his toe on a kick return against the Giants. Houston put him on injured reserve Oct. 28, and he is expected to miss the rest of the season.^[1]

Turf toe is a sprain of the main joint of the big toe. It happens when the toe is forced up and back, often on a sprint push-off or a tackle.^[30]

On Sunday, Jake Ferguson had a low-ankle sprain, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported.^[3] Hunter Henry left with a foot injury and didn’t return.^[4] Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley hurt his toe in the second quarter and didn’t return.^[16]

The lesson: When turf toe is severe, surgery is how you fix it. Fewer than 2% of turf toe injuries need an operation, mostly the worst grade, with joint damage, a bone injury or a very unstable joint.^[31] In a review of 121 turf toe injuries, a general number and not a forecast for Noel, athletes treated with surgery returned at a median of 14.7 weeks.^[32] Big toe pain after a jam or a push-off deserves an exam. See our big toe pain page.

NHL injuries: an ankle on the shelf and an ACL on the way back

Josh Manson fell awkwardly after a missed body check Oct. 28. His coach said Oct. 30 he’ll miss about eight weeks with an ankle injury.^[17] Rasmus Sandin had surgery April 21 to repair a torn ACL, a key knee ligament, and on Saturday he joined team skills work.^[8]

The lesson: Surgery is often what puts a hockey player back on the ice. In a study of 337 NHL players after common orthopedic operations, a general number and not a forecast for anyone here, 92.6% returned to play.^[33]

MLB injuries: offseason surgery buys a healthy spring

The offseason is surgery season. Caleb Durbin had a partial excision of the base of his fifth metatarsal, the long bone on the outside of the foot, with a tendon repair.^[9] Boston’s chief baseball officer called it an older injury, and the Boston Globe reported the operation should make the foot a non-issue by spring training.^[18]

Joey Loperfido had arthroscopic surgery, done through small incisions with a camera, for hip impingement and a labral tear.^[10] Max Muncy had his left knee cleaned up for cartilage damage and is expected to take full part in spring training.^[11]

The lesson: Fixing a nagging problem in the quiet months keeps it from costing you the season. In general research, 84.6% of patients returned to play after hip arthroscopy, at a mean of 7.4 months.^[13]

Soccer injuries: EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and more

We checked the biggest clubs in every major league. Clubs with no notable injury below the hip are left off.

EPL: Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka hurt his thigh against Bayern Munich in the Champions League and missed Sunday’s match at Liverpool.^[19] His manager said he needed another scan to see if the fluid was clearing and whether the tendon was hurt.^[20] Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo hurt his knee Oct. 17. His manager said the scan was better than feared, but he could be out about eight weeks.^[21]

La Liga: Barcelona’s Jules Koundé sprained his left ankle and has missed three matches since. He was still a doubt for Tuesday’s Champions League match with Aston Villa.^[22,23]

Serie A: Napoli’s Kevin De Bruyne came off at halftime of Sunday’s loss at Juventus with an ankle sprain.^[6] He was due for tests Monday to show how bad it is.^[24]

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich’s Ismael Saibari tore the syndesmosis ligament in his right ankle in Saturday’s draw with Dortmund, and he has already had successful surgery, SPORT1 reported.^[5] This ligament joins the two lower-leg bones just above the ankle. An injury there is called a high ankle sprain.^[34] Teammate Serge Gnabry has a muscle injury in the back of his left thigh.^[5]

Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain lost two stars in one night. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia tore the ACL in his right knee against Barcelona on Oct. 20, and Ousmane Dembélé hurt a muscle in his left thigh.^[25] On Oct. 27, the club said Kvaratskhelia’s surgery went well and his rehab would now begin.^[7]

Süper Lig: Beşiktaş midfielder Orkun Kökçü has a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot, plus an injury to the fat pad that cushions his heel.^[27] The plantar fascia is the thick band under the foot that supports the arch. He was ruled out of Sunday’s match, and the club has given no return date.^[28]

The lesson: An ankle repair can be a quick road back. In a review of elite athletes with high ankle sprains, a general number and not a forecast for Saibari, all 171 who had surgery returned to their sport, at a mean of about seven weeks.^[12] Knee surgery works for soccer players, too. Across 1,988 pro soccer players, 92.3% returned to play after ACL reconstruction, and 80.1% got back to their old level.^[35] Heel pain that lingers after a hard landing deserves an exam. See our heel pain page.

The pattern across leagues: the foot and ankle keep showing up

Seven of the 21 athletes on our board hurt a toe or foot, and six more hurt an ankle. That fits the research.

• Ankle sprains are common. Across 181 studies, indoor and court sports carried the highest ankle sprain rates, and outer ankle sprains were the most common type.^[36]
• They cost pros time. Over three NFL seasons, ankle injuries had an average cumulative incidence of 11.2%, and 91% of injured players returned to play.^[37]
• Thigh muscles are a soccer problem. Over 21 seasons at European men’s pro clubs, hamstring injuries grew from 12% to 24% of all injuries.^[38]

These are group numbers, not a forecast for any athlete named here.

What to know about the limits: Surgery isn’t quick. Surgically treated turf toe took longer to return from than milder cases treated without surgery, though the injuries weren’t equally severe.^[32] After ACL reconstruction, 8.2% of pro soccer players re-tore the new ligament, and return times have gotten longer in recent years.^[35] In the high ankle sprain review, 9.1% of surgical patients had a complication.^[12] NFL players’ output dropped after ankle injuries, even years later.^[37]

What this means for you

You don’t need a pro contract to jam a toe, break a foot or roll an ankle. At least 7 of the 21 athletes on our board reportedly had surgery.^{[2,8,9,10,11,5,7]} In our sports medicine practice, Dr. Efe Ozturk, a Foot and Ankle Surgeon and podiatrist, starts with an exam. Seeing a surgeon early keeps every option open. With in-office X-ray and ultrasound, bone and tendon can often be checked in one visit, and we arrange an MRI when needed.

Dr. Ozturk performs foot and ankle surgery, including fracture repair and plantar plate repair, through our Center for Lower Extremity Surgery (external site). We see patients at our Lyndhurst, Paramus and Millburn offices for ankle sprains, foot fractures and toe injuries. Please call our office at 908-215-5953 to inquire about your insurance.

Common questions

What is turf toe?

It’s a sprain of the big toe’s main joint, caused when the toe bends up too far. Mild cases may need only a stiff-soled shoe. Surgery is mostly for the worst tears, a broken sesamoid bone or an unstable joint.^[30]

What’s the difference between a high and a low ankle sprain?

About 90% of sprains hurt the ligaments on the outside of the ankle, the usual “low” sprain. A high sprain hurts the ligaments that join the two lower-leg bones. Surgery is considered when a high sprain leaves that joint unstable.^[34]

Do soccer players come back after ACL surgery?

Most do. Across 20 studies, pro soccer players returned at a mean of about 263 days after ACL reconstruction, or close to nine months.^[35]

When to see a Foot and Ankle Surgeon